Oregon teen is first person with Down syndrome to reach Mount Everest base camp

Eli Reimer, 15, is shown in this photo. Reimer, who has Down syndrome, became the first person to climb to the base camp of Mount Everest.

March 23, 2013 12:00:00 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES --

A teen from Bend, Ore. made the history books by becoming the first person with Down syndrome to climb to the base camp of Mount Everest.

Eli Reimer, 15, and his father arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to find a crowd of supporters waiting for him Tuesday night. The two returned to the states from Nepal after a successful mission to raise money and awareness for disabled children.

Eli trained for a year before he and his dad set out on a two-week, 70-mile hike to reach the Everest base camp. The altitude was 17,600 feet.

"I would say over 90 percent of the world's cultures don't accept disability and wouldn't think that somebody like my son would be able to attempt let alone complete something like this. So it was an amazing experience to do it with him. And like I said he actually led the way. We were dragging. We were experiencing our own sense of disability as we went up into the mountains and he led us all the way to base camp," described Eli's father, Justin Reimer.

Eli is the first person with Down syndrome ever to stand on that spot.